The evolution of the Drengin

Many years ago, when I was trying to come up with a villain for what I called, at the time, Earth Space Wars, I wanted an enemy that was brutal, ruthless and most importantly, inhuman. An enemy that would look at our system of ethics, morals and honor and laugh at them as being hopelessly naïve and primitive.

Below are images of the Drengin over the years.

Early Drengin image from early 90s.

Drengin painting from 1995

Lord Kona, Galactic Civilizations I

Lord Kona, a few years later in Galactic Civilizations II

Early GalCiv III version of Kona where he was blended with Korath concepts.

Not bad. I prefer if the Korath and the Drengin look a bit more similar since the Korath are supposed to be a subspecies, but don't make Kona too Korath-like for sake of continuity. Maybe make it as Drengin age, they look more like the Korath. Also, may I suggest that instead of Drengin hair getting white as they age, they instead lose colour by desaturation.

Interesting that he's aged so much in what has been indicated to be only a 10-20 year period. Given that mere humans have developed such effective lifespan-enhancing technology (as per the civilizations page), you'd think the Drengin certainly would have.

I guess brutally crushing the known galaxy beneath your heel can take a lot out of a guy.

Ok, I came up with a complementary origin story for the Drengin. Probably incomplete but it was fun to write:

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Billions of years ago the Mithrillar were fighting over the Telenanth when it shattered. A tiny, negligible piece drifted slowly away and after a few million years found its way into a dust cloud swirling a few light years away... With a glint of malice, over the next few billion years, what was to become Drengia formed from this dust cloud and six planets started forming around it.

....

While the Precursors were fighting their galactic civil war and the Iconians were exploring space while helping the Precursors, a red dwarf star shone its light on the fourth planet of the system and its inhabitants... As red dwarfs are smaller than other stars, their habitable zone is closer to the star, so the planet is tidally locked to the star and always faces it on the same side. The animals on the world used the perpetual daylight to run away from the ancient predator that was to evolve to be a Drengi. What was happening on the far, dark side of the planet, was unknown...

As the millenia passed the ancient predator evolved under the red light, adapting to the relatively low light levels with feline (to humans) eyes and growing slightly smaller as they wiped out species after species by predation. They were now able to stand on their two feet and had reduced in size from 15 feet long to about 9 feet tall. Their mouth had been reduced to smaller proportions from the gaping maw that used to hunt down the large Drengi land-whales that used to roam the vast plains of Drengi. The ancestors pf the Drengins had now mastered tools and they could more efficiently hunt down their prey under the red light of their sun. They now worshipped the Red Unmoving God and strengthened their resolve to be as resolute as him.

Over the next 50 000 years the Drengin mastered technology. It was slow at first, as research scientists were ridiculed for not fighting and were quickly whipped, roasted and eaten. However they soon discovered that whipped scientists worked better and gave them more tools to defeat their enemies faster. Drengin revelled in their wars. Tribe after tribe fought each other and country after country was founded and fell. If you thought two world wars were enough on Earth, Drengin had fifteen. Even after one faction got control of the planet, another faction rose up and there was more war. This was considered the natural state of affairs, as if a Drengin was not fighting he was a weakling. Culture and diplomacy took a back-seat and any painters were of course killed. Curiously, ones with a musical taste were allowed to live, as they could beat the drums for slaves in a more rhythmical and efficient way.

All the losers of the wars that survived were thought to be weak and sent to far side of the planet, the ultimate exile. There, they thought, they would find their death in a most excruciating and humiliating way, to be eaten by unknown monsters living in the cold. They sent their most dangerous criminals and insane citizens and thought that was the end of them. What they didn't think however was that even the defeated Drengin fought between them and the fittest ones survived. They slowly adapted to the cold, dark far side of the planet and formed their own society. They were the Korath and they had become unrecognisable. Full of hatred, full of lust for killing, as only the most ruthless, most evil Drengin had survived the harsh cold and dangerous wastes of the far side. They had changed physically as well, becoming paler due to the lack of light, their eyes changing to be able to pierce the darkness...

As the Drengin developed space flight their first act was to test their new weapons on the planet Dorha, the third planet from their sun. The planet was in the habitable zone as well and animals had evolved to a hunter gatherer stage. The Drengin thought they could harvest all of them as slaves and then blow up the planet. A Korath had managed to get on board of the spaceship however and thought nothing of pressing the button too early. The destroyed planet now forms the asteroid belt between Drengi and Mawhar. At least the test results for the weapon allowed the Drengin to improve their missiles. The Drengin, now knowing that there is other life out in space, still want slaves. They would have to start constructing probes and sending them out in the cold dark space to find other galactic civilizations...

Ok, I came up with a complementary origin story for the Drengin. Probably incomplete but it was fun to write:

====

Billions of years ago the Mithrillar were fighting over the Telenanth when it shattered. A tiny, negligible piece drifted slowly away and after a few million years found its way into a dust cloud swirling a few light years away... With a glint of malice, over the next few billion years, what was to become Drengia formed from this dust cloud and six planets started forming around it.

....

While the Precursors were fighting their galactic civil war and the Iconians were exploring space while helping the Precursors, a red dwarf star shone its light on the fourth planet of the system and its inhabitants... As red dwarfs are smaller than other stars, their habitable zone is closer to the star, so the planet is tidally locked to the star and always faces it on the same side. The animals on the world used the perpetual daylight to run away from the ancient predator that was to evolve to be a Drengi. What was happening on the far, dark side of the planet, was unknown...

As the millenia passed the ancient predator evolved under the red light, adapting to the relatively low light levels with feline (to humans) eyes and growing slightly smaller as they wiped out species after species by predation. They were now able to stand on their two feet and had reduced in size from 15 feet long to about 9 feet tall. Their mouth had been reduced to smaller proportions from the gaping maw that used to hunt down the large Drengi land-whales that used to roam the vast plains of Drengi. The ancestors pf the Drengins had now mastered tools and they could more efficiently hunt down their prey under the red light of their sun. They now worshipped the Red Unmoving God and strengthened their resolve to be as resolute as him.

Over the next 50 000 years the Drengin mastered technology. It was slow at first, as research scientists were ridiculed for not fighting and were quickly whipped, roasted and eaten. However they soon discovered that whipped scientists worked better and gave them more tools to defeat their enemies faster. Drengin revelled in their wars. Tribe after tribe fought each other and country after country was founded and fell. If you thought two world wars were enough on Earth, Drengin had fifteen. Even after one faction got control of the planet, another faction rose up and there was more war. This was considered the natural state of affairs, as if a Drengin was not fighting he was a weakling. Culture and diplomacy took a back-seat and any painters were of course killed. Curiously, ones with a musical taste were allowed to live, as they could beat the drums for slaves in a more rhythmical and efficient way.

All the losers of the wars that survived were thought to be weak and sent to far side of the planet, the ultimate exile. There, they thought, they would find their death in a most excruciating and humiliating way, to be eaten by unknown monsters living in the cold. They sent their most dangerous criminals and insane citizens and thought that was the end of them. What they didn't think however was that even the defeated Drengin fought between them and the fittest ones survived. They slowly adapted to the cold, dark far side of the planet and formed their own society. They were the Korath and they had become unrecognisable. Full of hatred, full of lust for killing, as only the most ruthless, most evil Drengin had survived the harsh cold and dangerous wastes of the far side. They had changed physically as well, becoming paler due to the lack of light, their eyes changing to be able to pierce the darkness...

As the Drengin developed space flight their first act was to test their new weapons on the planet Dorha, the third planet from their sun. The planet was in the habitable zone as well and animals had evolved to a hunter gatherer stage. The Drengin thought they could harvest all of them as slaves and then blow up the planet. A Korath had managed to get on board of the spaceship however and thought nothing of pressing the button too early. The destroyed planet now forms the asteroid belt between Drengi and Mawhar. At least the test results for the weapon allowed the Drengin to improve their missiles. The Drengin, now knowing that there is other life out in space, still want slaves. They would have to start constructing probes and sending them out in the cold dark space to find other galactic civilizations...

Or galactic slaves, as the Drengin would say.

====

BEAUTIFUL. I never really liked them but... WOW. And I agree, that Elderly Kona looks sad. The kind of Drengin that would be sent to the dark side of their planet.

Nah, Kona just looks that way because those damn humans keep popping up like cockroaches. You can never quite exterminate them. He got the old washed up look after the humans came back from the pocket universe in GalCiv3 and started using the Drengin as dish rags in their mop-up operations...